![]() But I think we are sleepwalking towards a position where councils just won’t be viable.” “I don’t believe that there is a conspiracy to destroy local government. “It’s big Labour cities like Bradford, but it’s also Kent and Hampshire – big Conservative councils. “What has surprised me in the last couple of days is just how angry leaders are,” Carr-West said. Jonathan Carr-West, chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit which has just surveyed the opinions of council leaders, said he was “starting to talk about this as a sort of existential threat to local government”. My concern is that there is a wave of councils that will effectively return the town hall keys back to the government because there is just no way out of this.”Ĭouncils that in effect fall into bankruptcy can issue a section 114 notice, signalling that they cannot balance their budgets. Once those things are gone, they’re gone. They’ve done the asset sales, they’ve done the staff reduction, they’ve done the service redesign and they’ve done the transformation. ![]() “Any suggestion of any further cuts on top of the current deficit we face and we’ll see the number of councils set to go bankrupt rise from one in 10 to a significantly higher number. Shaun Davies, leader of Telford and Wrekin council and chair of the Local Government Association, said there would be a big increase in the number of councils in financial distress. That means lives will be restricted and foreshortened. “Some will end up in hospitals, or will be delayed leaving. “No doubt about it, it’s going to be older and disabled people not getting timely support,” she said. Mel Lock, director of adult services for Somerset, warned of a real human cost. One senior Tory said: “The Treasury is fully aware that some flagship blue counties are right on the edge: falling over just before the election won’t look good.” Another warned: “We need to have a recognition that if we aren’t properly funded the rest of the country will fall over.” A third said: “The system is totally and utterly broken.” “Things are starting to fall apart at the seams,” said one despairing leader. However, local government sources said that after austerity since 2010, there was now an “existential threat” to local services – while big council tax increases could be on the cards. Traditionally, ministers have chosen to prioritise the NHS and schools. Sir Bob Neill, the Tory MP who chairs the Commons justice select committee, said that there was a case for “revisiting which departments should be given protection” from spending cuts. The state of prisons, backlogs in the legal system and pressure on further education have caused most immediate alarm. ![]() Once settlements for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are taken into account, non-protected government departments in England face an annual cut of 3.4% for five years. The backlash comes after economists concluded that the chancellor’s tax cuts last week in effect came at the expense of future public spending.
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